Before Christmas, EB mentioned a few times that some of her friends at school had "real elves" that did silly things at night at their houses. She was really bummed that she didn't have one, so I began to brainstorm ways to increase the excitement building up to Christmas in our house.
My solution, only concocted a week late, was to have Advent Breakfasts that were weekly celebrations on Saturday mornings (since that's an easier time than on Sundays). We spent a little time talking about "randomly" what an elf would plan for breakfast, and EB decided that elves would have cake, cookies, and all unhealthy food for breakfast. So, on our first Advent Breakfast morning, she woke up to a decorated table with mini-cupcakes, strawberries and snow (powdered sugar), our Advent wreath and candles, and a little Advent gift of Christmas stickers. We pretended that her Elf doll had planned the breakfast.
She was so excited.
We kept it up the next week, this time with beignets and a gingerbread house kit.
Each week we read about the candles and their meanings. The best part for me happened after week two when EB was doing facetime with some friends. They showed her their Elf and the crazy things he had been doing. Her response, "Oh, we had an elf breakfast and had cupcakes and lighted our Advent candles." Her friends asked what Advent was and she shared what she remembered about Hope and Preparation. I was so pleased that she had something fun and meaningful to share when her friends mentioned their elf. Mission accomplished.
We had our last Advent breakfast at Nona and Big Daddy's complete with a new angel chimes candle set, just like Graham remembered from growing up.
We are looking forward to continuing this tradition next year!
- ashley
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